Interior Options - Model S

[Mycroft]

Hmmm, wide car, bench seat in the back. Elon better keep a close leash on his boys when they get old enough to borrow the car. :biggrin:

 

[EV_de]

funny , friend of mine pointed there might be a problem with highheels and the center touch screen ...:redface:

 

[Tommy]

funny , friend of mine pointed there might be a problem with highheels and the center touch screen ...:redface:

At age 60, that's a problem I'd like to have!

 

[vfx]

At age 60, that's a problem I'd like to have!

But the name Tommy sounds so young.

 

[Tommy]

But the name Tommy sounds so young.

Perhaps I was speaking in the future tense or was it past tense.....my memory seems to be a bit fuzzy.

 

[WhiteKnight]

It dawned on me, as I was looking over the features of the car, that Tesla is going to charge money for the fake leather seats as part of a 'select' trim package.

Model S comes standard with 60% recycled seating surfaces. The “Select’ interior trim package offers leather-look seating surfaces free of PVC. The Banana Leaf option adds a rich look to the interior without the impact of deforestation. This material is the first 100% natural veneer to be made of banana plant trunk fibers.

Model S Features | Tesla Motors

It is pretty easy for Tesla to say that the price of $57,000 has not changed. But what seems to be changing is things that we believed were standard on the car are now becoming upgrades we have to pay more for.

 

[Mycroft]

You should read through some of the early Roadster threads. Evidently, this isn't new for Tesla. When you're between a rock and investors, you have to do some undesirable things.

 

[Cobos]

Yeah but they should have a better feel for the cost of production now then with the Roadster. And non of the Signature people but, the ones in the P line and later customers will cross-shop the Model S with the BMW 5 series. If the BMW comes standard with leather seats, navigation, +++ at $50 000 then Tesla is pricing themselves out of the market. I'm guessing they KNOW that and that's the reason why they've been so reluctant to come out with what options are included. They can't decide until the really know how much the "base" car costs to make.

Cobos

 

[Todd Burch]

Yeah--I'm starting to get a little worried about getting nickel and dimed to death.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Yeah--I'm starting to get a little worried about getting nickel and dimed to death.

Me too. Many analysts have been worried about Tesla's viability for precisely this reason. Can they really deliver a very fancy car that has everything that its identically-priced ICE brethren have but, has this enormously expensive battery pack as well?! The Roadster was really quite spartan but, that might have been okay for the enthusiasts who'd have gotten it anyway; with the Model S, things would be different...

 

[strider]

Yeah--I'm starting to get a little worried about getting nickel and dimed to death.

Have you actually gone to BMW's website and "Built" a 5-series? You can option a 535i over $90,000 (from a base of ~$50,000. So "nickel and diming" is part and parcel to the global car-buying experience.

 

[vfx]

... So "nickel and diming" is part and parcel to the global car-buying experience.

Yeah, nothing new there. It's the packages that are worse. I wanted a NAV with my SUV and had to buy all sort of things that I did not even want to get it.
At least when I bought my Roadster I could pick the exact options I wanted (including custom paint)

Hopefully Tesla will not be "bundling" for maximum profit like other manufactures. Makes for unhappy customers to make them buy things they don't want.

 

[Doug_G]

Have you actually gone to BMW's website and "Built" a 5-series? You can option a 535i over $90,000 (from a base of ~$50,000. So "nickel and diming" is part and parcel to the global car-buying experience.

BMW has taken that to somewhat of an extreme. Other vendors are not nearly as bad.

 

[nhurst]

Porsche is much worse.

 

[qwk]

Hopefully Tesla will not be "bundling" for maximum profit like other manufactures. Makes for unhappy customers to make them buy things they don't want.

I fully agree. There are options that I want, and others I don't need/want. Bundling is a horrible thing to force on a customer.

 

[AnOutsider]

Aside from greed, I assume there are reasons for some things being bundled (i.e. dependencies etc). Some car manufacturers make you get Nav to get a reverse camera. Well, in that case it makes sense, since without nav you likely wouldn't have the big screen. If they gave you the camera without nav, you'd have a big ole screen that essentially serves one purpose.

 

[qwk]

Aside from greed, I assume there are reasons for some things being bundled (i.e. dependencies etc). Some car manufacturers make you get Nav to get a reverse camera. Well, in that case it makes sense, since without nav you likely wouldn't have the big screen. If they gave you the camera without nav, you'd have a big ole screen that essentially serves one purpose.

Yeah, I totally understand that aspect of bundling. A good example would be a 300 mile pack is needed for the sport option.

 

[DaveVa]

Have you actually gone to BMW's website and "Built" a 5-series? You can option a 535i over $90,000 (from a base of ~$50,000. So "nickel and diming" is part and parcel to the global car-buying experience.

Acura and Infiniti take a bundle approach which keeps cost down - fully loaded it is usually base+10k. I much prefer this approach.

 

[ckessel]

Acura and Infiniti take a bundle approach which keeps cost down - fully loaded it is usually base+10k. I much prefer this approach.

Same here. Much as I like to pick and choose, Acura goes the other way and has very few bundles, but the cost is quite reasonable. We love our RDX.

 

[Tommy]

Got a few people over at the Tesla forum upset about this article that:

Once inside the car, most could not get their eyes off the 17-inch, high-definition display in the center of the dash, a $1,900 option. It functions like an enlarged iPad with Internet access over a 3G connection, allowing clear access to Google maps and climate controls.

http://www.almanacnews.com/news/show_story.php?id=9830

Article mentions the car weights 3,700 lbs. which is at odds with what Elon stated at the event (4,100 lbs) so maybe the reporter got the facts wrong regarding the display being an option.